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I'm not sure what to think about all this. On the one hand, extending an olive branch to the Baath Party may help to continue the healing process in Iraq. On the other hand, extending an olive branch to the Baath Party may help to incite violence and a renewal of extremism. Just last December, 35 former Baathists were arrested for conspiring to reconstitute the party of Saddam. Perhaps, moderate Baathists can be viewed like "moderate Taliban" -- it's an illogical oxymoron. Al Jazeera reports: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's latest call for reconciliation with members of the former regime came...

Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general have been arrested over the past three days with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, according to senior security officials in Baghdad. The arrests, confirmed by officials from the Ministries of the Interior and National Security as well as the prime minister’s office, included four generals, one of whom, Gen. Ahmed Abu Raqeef, is the ministry’s director of internal affairs. The officials also said that the arrests had come at the hand of an elite counterterrorism force...

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama was quick to blame the bankruptcy of Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers on Republicans’ “failed philosophy”. Obama’s September 15 comments were repeated throughout the media--yet reporters have not noted Obama’s glaring conflict of interest—the Lehman debt owed to a bank owned by the financier who loaned millions of dollars to Tony Rezko. Jockeying among the other debtors seeking repayment under Chapter 11 bankruptcy rules is BNP Paribas, a large French bank whose largest single private shareholder is Nadhmi Auchi’s General Mediterranean Holdings (GMH). BNP Paribas is owed $250 million by Lehman. Nadhmi Auchi is an...

Baathist - al Qaeda collaboration extends beyond borders of IraqA recent Treasury Department designation and an October arrest in Italy appear to indicate that Baathist and al Qaeda members in both Europe and the Middle East have discussed and attempted various forms of suicide attacks on coalition forces which include the use of aircraft in suicide attacks. As first pointed out the Counter Terrorism Blog, on December 6 the U.S. Treasury Department announced the designation of 7 individuals for their support of the insurgency in Iraq and/or their support of former regime officials. The designations named Fawzi Mutlaq Al-Rawi (al...

Baghdad, 22 August (AKI) - The leader of Iraq's banned Baath party, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has decided to join efforts by the Iraqi authorities to fight al-Qaeda, one of the party's former top officials, Abu Wisam al-Jashaami, told pan-Arab daily Al Hayat. "AlDouri has decided to sever ties with al-Qaeda and sign up to the programme of the national resistance, which includes routing Islamist terrorists and opening up dialogue with the Baghdad government and foreign forces," al-Jashaami said. Al-Douri has decided to deal directly with US forces in Iraq, according to al-Jashaami. He figures in the 55-card deck of "most...

Cindy Sheehan, Tom Hayden, and the Hate America Left meet with pro-Ba'athist members of the Iraqi parliament to discuss “peace.” TO FIND PEOPLE WHO HATE AMERICA AS MUCH AS THEY DO, the Fifth Column Left had to go halfway around the world to meet with Iraqi political leaders who call terrorism “honorable national resistance” and say foreign jihadists “are guaranteed Paradise” – and at least one of whom has ties to militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. By the end of the trip, the American leftists would echo these sentiments. Somehow most of the media – occupied with interminable coverage of Hurricane...

Baathist insurgents and Sunni nationalists fight al-Qaeda together with US forces.

CBS reports Baathist insurgents and Sunni nationalists are fighting al-Qaeda together with US forces

WASHINGTON – It has been denied, downplayed, overlooked, forgotten, disregarded and omitted from the public record. But a thorough review of open-source material demonstrates conclusive and widespread cooperation between former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime and terrorists from the Iraqi al-Qaida network. Dozens of former Saddam Hussein loyalists captured by U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq were found to be working with al-Qaida or linked to their operations.

WASHINGTON – It has been denied, downplayed, overlooked, forgotten, disregarded and omitted from the public record. But a thorough review of open-source material demonstrates conclusive and widespread cooperation between former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime and terrorists from the Iraqi al-Qaida network. Dozens of former Saddam Hussein loyalists captured by U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq were found to be working with al-Qaida

Serious new divisions have emerged between the Bush administration and its Iraqi allies over the Baghdad government's refusal to enact a reform that the White House considers crucial to its new strategy for bringing the country's violence under control. In spite of a commitment by Iraq's prime minister to its passage, legislation that would ease rules barring former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from government service has been blocked by the country's Shiite-dominated parliament. U.S. officials repeatedly have expressed confidence that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki would work for passage of "de-Baathification" reform. However, they have begun to express disappointment...

One man’s obsession with Iraq Seattle Times chief political reporter By David Postman January 5, 2006 WASHINGTON — Dal LaMagna has packed up his second home in New York and moved to a house a short walk from the Capitol to begin a one-man, self-financed lobbying campaign to get the U.S. out of Iraq. #snip# McDermott said he asked U.S. officials in Jordan to give visas to two Iraqis he wants to bring to D.C. But he said he has been unable to make that happen. LaMagna says getting Iraqis to Washington is key. "They need to say to the...

A collection of 9/11 tributes I’ll add to the list below, and if you have any you’d like to add to this (or any other sort of tribute/remembrance), please do so here. Either leave a comment with the link, or link to this post and send a trackback. 9/11: The 5th Year Anniversary Tribute Blood of Heroes September 11th, Uncensored From Brain Terminal: Crystal Morning: September 11th, 2001 From William Teach: 9/11 Plus 5 From Crusader: WTC Tribute More from YouTube: 911 tribute September 11th - Five Years Later: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 September 11th - Flash...

The government of Iraq is secretly holding a Baathist cabal of military officers it claims attempted a coup against Prime Minister al-Maliki. The plotters were rounded up July 5 with the help of American military authorities after the Iraqi government's security warning center sent word to Mr. Maliki, who was in Kuwait on his first official visit as head of state, two highly placed Iraqi sources said. The prime minister quickly canceled a scheduled trip to Amman, Jordan, and returned to Baghdad to attend to the matter. At the time, Mr. Maliki's staff told reporters that the prime minister was...

Oracle Commentaries 7/22/2006 Urgent Intelligence Update UNCOVERED: RUSSIAN-SYRIAN-IRANIAN AXIS For students of Bible prophecy, even the title of this communiqué should set off alarm sirens. I just received some electrifying intelligence data. First, from the Debka-Net-Weekly’s briefing. And second, from some personal intelligence sources (I carefully guard) that confirm Debka’s report. Russia, Iran and Syria have entered a defense pact that is in the process of altered the balance of power in the entire Middle East. Russia’s part in the pact has been kept relatively secret for a long time. But the facts reveal a long steady Russian commitment...

LEADING Syrian opposition figures, led by the country’s former Vice-President, gathered in London yesterday for a two-day conference to plot the overthrow of the Baathist regime of President Assad.The unprecedented gathering, which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office insisted was not co-ordinated with any British officials, was led by Abdel Halim Khaddam, who predicted that Syria’s increasingly dictatorial leadership would one day soon be toppled by a popular revolt. Speaking to The Times under tight security in a suite at the Dorchester in Park Lane, where the dissident National Salvation Front movement was launched, Mr Khaddam said that corruption and the...

The D.C. Chapter of Free Republic invites all FReepers and lurkers in good standing to join with us tonight as we attend this public event: From above linked source: The Prince George’s Peace and Justice Coalition will host one of a group of Iraqi women now touring the United States.Eman Ahmad Khamas(*) will give a firsthand account of how the occupation of Iraq has changed everyday life there, and explain why she and her sisters on the tour want the U.S. to withdraw from their homeland. This begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Greenbelt Community Center, 15 Crescent Road, Greenbelt....

Medea Benjamin's multiple Marxist Organizations make it somewhat difficult to find out what they're up to, with their "Iraqi Women" tour. I just found this itinerary listed on Global Exchange's website. Medea Benjamin, Code Pink, Global Exchange, Women Say No To War, et.al., have been peddling this tour as being voices of real Iraqi women. Not true, and I will add more about this in comments to follow on this thread. But since some of these events are tonight, I wanted to post this announcement quickly, in case some of you all wanted to attend and/or protest these events. My...

In a posting on the reformist website www.elaph.com, Iraqi reformist Dr. Abd Al-Khaleq Hussein, whose articles are regularly posted on the site, criticized the Iranian and Syrian regimes and their actions in Iraq and Lebanon. He wrote that these regimes were fascist in the true sense of the word, and that no stability, democracy, or economic prosperity would be possible in the region as long as they existed. The following are excerpts from his article:(1) The Syrian and Iranian Regimes are Fascist – Literally, Not Metaphorically "Some believe that describing the Iranian Islamic regime and the Ba'th Party's Syrian regime...

Baghdad, 19 Dec. (AKI) - The US authorities in Iraq have ordered the release from prison of 25 senior members of Saddam Hussein's former Baath party. The ex-officials will be transferred to neighbouring Jordan, one of the lawyers defending them told the Chinese news agency Xinhua. Many members and supporters of the former party are involved in the Iraqi insurgency. Under Saddam Hussein's rule, Iraqis could not reach senior positions in the government or in schools without being card-carrying members of the Baath party. But after the fall of the regime in 2003, the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer,...

CAIRO, Egypt - Five Islamic militant groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq, denounced the Iraqi elections as a "satanic project" that violates God's law and vowed to continue their war to establish an Islamic government in the country. But the Internet posting made no threats to disrupt Thursday's parliamentary elections, unlike previous statements before balloting in January and October, when militants warned they would attack polling stations to stop people from voting. ADVERTISEMENT The statement's authenticity could not be independently verified. If authentic, it was a rare instance of several of Iraq's militant groups joining together to announce their stance. "The...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Al-Qaida's second-ranking figure called on Iraqi insurgent groups to unite and claimed President Bush is deceiving the American people about successes against Islamic militancy, according to a videotape broadcast Wednesday. Ayman al-Zawahri, in a broadcast carried on the Arab television network Al-Jazeera, urged Iraqi Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen "whose hands were not tainted by Americans" should come together to fill "the gap that will be left by the Americans departure" from Iraq. "I call all mujahedeen groups to unite and work closely to achieve the coming victory" in Iraq, he said.

LONDON [MENL] -- Aides of deposed President Saddam Hussein, under the guise of Al Qaida fighters, have been leading the insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. Islamic sources said many of the Al Qaida-aligned cells that have appeared over the last two years stemmed from units in the Saddam military. The sources said Baathist operatives have adopted Islamic identities to exploit support among Muslims for Al Qaida. The Baathist strategy was formed during Saddam's rule, the sources said. They pointed to the "Return to Faith Campaign" directed by then-Iraqi Vice President Izzat Ibrahim Al Douri, which sought to curry...

Iraqi Kurdish Commentary Says 'Darkest Wave of Terror' Ahead The author of the following article, from Khabat, the daily newspaper published by Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party, expects to see a much darker wave of terror break out in Iraq now that the Iraqi constitution was accepted in the referendum. The terrorist groups of Al-Qa'da in Iraq and the remnants of Baathists had bet on the rejection of the constitution on 15 May 2005 by two thirds of the voters in the provinces of Anbar, Tikrit and Mosul. But as the Kurds and most Iraqis anticipated, it wads not so. It...

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is scheduled to visit the United States in November for a round of meetings with President Bush and other high ranking US officials. As the representative of the Yemeni people, Saleh deserves a great deal of respect and hospitality. Yet it has become increasingly apparent that the regime, under the total domination of President Saleh, is engaged in a wide variety of criminal activities to the detriment of regional stability and the Yemeni people themselves. Drug Smuggling: One regionally destabilizing regime activity is drug smuggling. A variety of illegal drugs are smuggled via the Indian...

[downloaded as a .pdf file from "Qanbar remarks"] The biggest danger to Iraqi citizens and the Iraqi government is terrorism.  Thus, the main task of the Iraqi army is not to fight wars with foreign countries, but to fight terrorism.   To defeat terrorism in Iraq, we need to establish a military force based on a doctrine that recognizes the nature of the enemy and what is required to defeat him.  We need to be prepared for a long term war.  Therefore, our necessary starting point is to understand the roots of terrorism in Iraq and the terrorists’ methods and means and how to defeat...

I don't understand what a Mexican flag has to do with our war in IraqLots of Mexicans, wow!Halloween?I do whatever for a pennyI'd suggest you to live in Cuba then

BAGHDAD, Sept 5 (KUNA) -- Iraqi security forces on Sunday arrested 73 militants and confiscated large amounts of weapons and booby-trapped cars in raids throughout the country, a statement by the government stated Monday. The statement said 30 militants were arrested in Tallafar after police forces returned fire that targeted a police station. A sniper was killed and a site for making explosives and containing gas-masks as well as light weapons ammunition was discovered in the same incident. The statement said security also arrested five terrorists in Diyala and Miqdadiyah and added four of them were members of a cell...

Ever since the beginning of major combat operations in Iraq in March 2003, the media have kept a precise count of U.S. casualty figures, which now stand at nearly 1,700 killed and more than 6,400 wounded. There's also been plenty of tendentious speculation about the number of Iraqis killed by coalition action, the purpose of which is to cast Iraq's liberation as an unmitigated horror for Iraqis. What has not been so carefully tracked, however, is the number of Iraqis killed by insurgent violence: the worshippers murdered as they pray in their mosques, the ranks of unemployed mowed down as...

Syria's ruling Ba'athist regime has launched a brutal crackdown on dissenters in the run-up to a landmark gathering of senior party leaders this week.Damascus's feared secret police have detained at least 14 opposition figures and have been blamed for the murders of two more. Last Wednesday, the body of Sheik Mohamed Maashuk Khaznawi, a prominent Kurdish leader, was found dumped on a street three weeks after he vanished. According to his family, he had been tortured. Hours later, Samir Qassir, a prominent Lebanon-based journalist, was killed when a bomb exploded in his car in Beirut. The streets of Damascus have...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi scientist killed in the U.S. invasion and now linked by arms hunter David Kay to possible nuclear weapons research was working on an advanced gun, not atomic bombs, fellow physicists say. They and eyewitnesses also say Khalid Ibrahim Sa'id was killed not when he tried to "run a roadblock," as asserted by Kay, but when a U.S. tank crew blasted his civilian car without warning on an open street. These accounts of the physicist's research and death, provided by 10 Iraqis and supported on key points by U.N. arms inspectors, challenge a core element of...

Recently, Wolf Blitzer of CNN was interviewing new Prime Minister Jalal-Talibani of Iraq about the situation that the newly formed government council is facing now that Iraq is a democracy. Blitzer asked Jalal-Talibani when he thought the United States would bring the troops home. Jalal-Talibani told him that he forsees that U.S troops will be in his homeland for at least another two years. When the pime mnister said this, the look on Blitzer's face seemed to say: "You must be kidding." He looked as if he couldn't believe his ears. But I exclaimed to myself: "Another two years!" That...

WITH paintbrushes, forensic specialists are carefully brushing away dirt from a human skull covered with sandy soil, one of 1500 believed to be buried in seven mass graves uncovered in this desolate stretch of the Iraqi desert, now patrolled by Australian troops. In a nearby trench dug by US investigators, a mass of black tangled hair gives a second skull an almost life-like appearance. A third skull appears to be screaming, mouth wide open. Skulls and bones, clothing and other belongings found in shallow graves offer valuable clues to investigators gathering evidence against Saddam Hussein and others from the former...

Charles Pasqua, a former French minister of interior, has emerged as one of the highest-ranking targets of the widening investigations into the Iraq oil-for-food scandal. United Nations, US and French investigators are examining Iraqi documents that show officials in Baghdad were instructed to transfer his lucrative oil allocations to an offshore company, to shield him from criticism. Mr Pasqua's alleged role has emerged as inquiries turn to the role of foreign governments in the corruption within the humanitarian aid programme. France and Russia, which opposed the 2003 invasion, have long been accused in the US of being too close to...

On the surface there would seem to be little to unite the Aryan racialists of the neo-Nazi movement with the terrorists of radical Islam. To the neo-Nazis, Muslims are almost all members of ``inferior`` races; and to the Islamic terrorists, the neo-Nazis are almost without exception either atheists or members of fringe quasi-Christian sects. But the reality is that there has been close cooperation between Muslim extremists and Fascists ever since the founding of the Nazi movement in the 1920`s. For all of their differences, Muslim extremists and Nazis have always been united by a common group of beliefs and...

Saywan Barzani, Kurdish representative to Europe: “Greater effort required from US and government against the Baathist network”.Paris (AsiaNews) -- Baathist “kidnappers, torturers and cutthroats” are the problem facing Iraq today. It is a question of “extremist terrorists” who want to “destabilize the country to the core,” and with whom “there can be no dialogue.” This according to Paris-based Saywan Barzani, Kurdish government representative in Europe, in an interview with AsiaNews. Barzani, nephew of Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, calls on Iraq’s government and coalition troops to increase efforts against a network of 3000 Baathist militants, and their...

Iraqi nationalists in recent days have gone after the US led coalition aircrafts that can be harmed with Russian made Surface to Air Missiles (SAM) and man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS). On Jan. 27, a U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter went down near the Iraqi-Jordanian border, and the next day a U.S. Army OH-58 observation helicopter crashed in Baghdad. On Jan. 30, a British Royal Air Force C-130 went down near the town of Taki while on its way to Balad Air Base from Baghdad International Airport (BIA). Additionally, in a news story, which U.S. Central Command denies,...

MP's wife introduced him to Saddam sympathiser, writes CAMERON SIMPSON and AARON HICKLIN GEORGE Galloway first met the shadowy figure of Fawaz Zureikat through his Palestinian wife. The fateful meeting was to propel the man who goes under the soubriquets of "Gorgeous George" and the "MP for Baghdad Central" into one of the biggest crises of his colourful career. Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad, 36, a Jerusalem-born scientist who married Mr Galloway in a secret ceremony in London in February 2000, had gone to the same university in Jordan as Mr Zureikat. Mr Zureikat's name first surfaced in a letter from Mr...

More signs of Syria turn up in Iraq The Iraqi ambassador to Syria tells the Monitor that photos of high-ranking Syrian officials were found in Fallujah. By Nicholas Blanford | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor DAMASCUS, SYRIA - When US troops stormed the rebel-held city of Fallujah last month, they uncovered photos of senior Syrian officials that have further strained the already tense relations between Syria and Iraq, according to the Iraqi ambassador to Syria.Several captured insurgents were found in possession of the photographs, confirmation, according to Iraqi officials, that some elements in the Syrian regime - perhaps...

The US is contemplating incursions into Syrian territory in an attempt to kill or capture Iraqi Ba'athists who, it believes, are directing at least part of the attacks against US targets in Iraq, a senior administration official told The Jerusalem Post. The official said that fresh sanctions are likely to be implemented, but added that the US needs to be more "aggressive" after Tuesday's deadly attack on a US base in Mosul. The comment suggested that the US believes the attack on the mess tent, in which 22 people were killed, may have been coordinated from inside Syrian territory. "I...

Despite the lack of security in Iraq today, a democratic, pluralistic Iraq is the only acceptable outcome. Iraq's unity can be best secured through the involvement of all groups in the political process. The concerns being voiced by many in the international community, of the fear of Sunni marginalization and Shiite domination, were the same concerns that allowed Saddam to last as long as he did. Those arguments are reappearing today, to close the door of hope and opportunity for the Iraqi people. But Saddamism without Saddam is simply not an option. Iraq's people are already realizing their objective of...

BAGHDAD, June 30 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein, who brutalised Iraqis for decades, said good morning and sought to ask some questions when the United States handed him over to Iraqi justice on Wednesday, a witness said. Saddam, who was captured hiding near his hometown of Tikrit in December, looked in good health as he appeared before an Iraqi judge in the first legal step towards a trial for the cruelties he inflicted during his 35 years of power. "Saddam said good morning and asked if he could ask some questions," Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 - President Bush on Tuesday bestowed the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, on three of the central architects and executors of the war in Iraq, one of the president's strongest efforts yet at putting a formal stamp of success on a war whose outcome is still a question. The recipients were Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the overall commander of the invasion of Iraq; L. Paul Bremer III, the chief civilian administrator of the American occupation of the country; and George J. Tenet, the longtime director of central intelligence who built the case for...

WASHINGTON -- In 1864, 11 of the 36 United States did not participate in the presidential election. Was Lincoln's election therefore illegitimate? In 1868, three years after the security situation had, shall we say, stabilized, three states (not insignificant ones: Texas, Virginia and Mississippi) did not participate in the election. Was Grant's election illegitimate? There has been much talk that if the Iraqi election is held and some Sunni Arab provinces (perhaps 3 of the 18) do not participate, the election will be illegitimate. Nonsense. The election should be held. It should be open to everyone. If Iraq's Sunni Arabs...

...Last week in London, President Jacques Chirac admitted that getting rid of Saddam "may well have been good idea" — then added a big "but" about the wisdom of early elections in Iraq. His argument for delay was based on the claim that he wanted "broader participation" in the elections.... The camp of Saddam nostalgics, including Chirac and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, have... portrayed the hostage-takers and head-choppers who terrorize parts of Iraq as "la resistance" and insisted that they should have a place in shaping the future of the country.... With Bush re-elected, chances of sabotaging Iraq's elections vanished....

John Kerry and most of the major media tried to make President Bush's handling of Iraq the issue this election year. They lost big. Despite the dicey security situation there and a constant drumbeat of bad news, American voters showed steadier nerves and more common sense than critics who tried to portray every setback as evidence of "criminal incompetence."... We can hardly expect to win the counterinsurgency so long as Iraqis have more reason to fear the consequences of working with us than those of working against us. To their credit, both President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi...

In singular moments in our history, the security of the United States hinged on a single presidential election.... Today's vote determines how the United States finishes the present war against terrorists, and, indeed, whether we continue to defeat Islamic fascism.... John Kerry sees our struggle as an unending law enforcement problem, akin to gambling and prostitution. Thus the terrorist attacks of the 1990s were not deadly precursors to 9/11, but belong to a now nostalgic era of "nuisance." In contrast, George W. Bush envisioned September 11 as real war.... Most of Sen. Kerry's allegations about this war ring false or...

...Zarqawi in Fallujah, as interviewed in the Arabic language London daily Al Hayat and translated by the indispensable Middle East Media Research Institute (www.memri.org),... added that "there is no dispute regarding anyone who collaborates with the occupation -- he is a traitor and must be killed." The interview deserves the attention of anyone who thinks the violence we're facing has something to do with an awakening of genuine Iraqi patriotism. On the one hand, we have Baathists making a crass attempt to recapture the privileges they enjoyed under the former regime. Working hand in glove are foreign terrorists who conceive...

...The Zarqawi memo also reveals how much recent developments have been the product of a deliberate plan rather than a popular revolt. It talks of using the Sunni Triangle as a sanctuary, and of targeting the Shiite community with car bombs, along with Iraq's "bastard government." Stopping the creation of Iraqi security forces appears to be Zarqawi's primary aim.... ...But the problem is that we've been unable to protect and reassure the many Sunnis who would, all things being equal, choose our side.... The start-stop battle of Fallujah this April was a mistake, and has left that city as a...

A series of truces agreed on last month, encompassing Mr Sadr's stronghold in al-Thoura, Baghdad's eastern slum, as well as the Shia holy cities and other towns further south, are still holding. His own home turf in the capital has been more peaceful than it has been for months. Former fighters are now being paid to collect rubbish, plant trees, direct traffic and help the Iraqi police. The new government has promised to pay for a new sewage system so that the slum detritus will no longer flow past Baghdad's grimmest tenements. Outside the city, the clergy behind Mr...